What is a Wind Profiler?
Wind profiler is a Doppler radar for measuring wind from the ground.
It can measure wind vectors above the radar site utilizing the clear-air echo.
Clear-air echo is caused by fluctuation of the refractive index in which the scale is half the radar wavelength (Bragg scattering).
From the Doppler shift of along a certain beam direction, the line-of-sight velocity along the radar beam can be measured.
Assuming horizontal homogeneity of wind field, three components of wind vectors can be measured by at least three beam observations.
Observable height range of radars depends on transmit power, antenna size and radar frequency.
General Characteristics of Wind Profilers
| Radar Frequency |
VHF Radar
(50MHz) |
UHF Radar
(400MHz) |
UHF Radar
(1GHz)
|
| Observable Range |
2-20 km |
0.5-17 km |
0.2-3 km
|
| Antenna Size |
100*100 m |
10*10 m |
1*1 m
|
| Transmit Peak Power |
1000-100 kW |
10 kW |
1 kW
|
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Created by Yuichi Ohno (ohno@crl.go.jp)
Ver. 2.1 : Apr 2002